SOUTH DAKOTA DEPT. OF GAME, FISH AND PARKS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, Sept. 29, 2005
CONTACT: Chris Hull, 773-2744

"You should come tomorrow," Aberdeen area Conservation Foreman Jeremy Cramer told me as I talked to him on the phone. "We are going to have a heavy day of spraying leafy spurge, plus if it is nice, we might even get to see some spurge beetles. Of course if the wind howls, all bets are off."

So I checked the weather on the internet at 4:30 a.m., "Winds 5-10 later in the afternoon," I said to my dog, who was still sleeping. I thought that would give me a good enough chance to work with Jeremy, so I jumped in my rig and headed northeast.

By 7:00 a.m. the wind was screaming across the prairie. "Why does the weather always mess with me on these trips!?" I thought. I was almost to Aberdeen however, so I decided to keep going and see what Jeremy would be doing anyway.

The internet hadn’t told me that the Aberdeen area had received over four inches of rain the night before, so when I pulled up to the Game Fish and Parks offices, there were some rather large puddles in the parking lot. Jeremy came out to meet me with a smile on his face. "You picked a heck of a day to come watch us work," he laughed. As we walked inside, I swear I could see whitecaps on the parking lot puddles.

As we walked around the shop and backlot, Jeremy filled me in on his duties. "I have a crew of one full-time, one permanent part-time and five seasonal employees," he said. "That crew is in charge of maintaining around 55,000 acres of Game Production Areas across the region. In addition to the crew, we have three tractors with 130-150 gallon spray tanks and three four-wheelers with spray tanks on the back as well. We can get to just about any stand of Canadian Thistle or Leafy Spurge that we have on our GPAs. Although there are times when we have to get out and hand spray certain areas."

As if on cue, Jeremy’s phone rang. "You’re stuck? Where?" Cramer smiled and nodded as he listened. "I didn’t think it would be that bad in his driveway. I will send Loren out to pull you out. How bad is it? Do you need the tractor?" he laughed. "OK, I will have the boys load it up and they will be on their way. This will be at least a two-dozener," he smiled as he hung up the phone. "Anytime you get stuck, that is donuts for everyone," he explained.

The sun started to peak between the clouds and Cramer suggested that we take a drive out to some of the local Game Production Areas and take a look at their condition. We couldn’t spray anything, but I could still get a good idea of what he did every day.

"Personally, my job out in the field is to control the leafy spurge," Cramer said as we pulled onto a wet gravel road. "The other guys control the thistle. I try to keep the guys together as this can be some tricky country and you are never sure what can happen out there."

"We have over 150 GPAs in the eight counties we cover. I have been to all of them but five. I know all of them pretty well, which is important because the leafy spurge will generally be in the same spots from year to year," he said.

We got out of the pickup after stopping at a small area just west of Aberdeen. By now, the sun was shining and I could see that Cramer was getting excited just talking about his job.

"Lets walk down to that small stand of spurge, I have something to show you," he said over his shoulder as he had already begun walking through the waist high grass.

I caught up to Jeremy about the time we got to the small patch of yellow plants. We were both soaking wet from the grass, but he didn’t seem to mind. He was beaming from ear to ear.

"Check these out," he said as he ripped a small branch of spurge out of the ground. Scurrying up and down the length of the plant were small, plain and unassuming little bugs.

"Those are spurge beetles. These little guys can control spurge just as good as any chemicals can. In fact, this stand of spurge used to cover about fifty percent of this GPA. Now what is it? Heck it isn't even an acre."

"These beetles are only out in the open for about three weeks every year. They do most of their damage in the fall when they burrow down into the roots," Cramer told me as he gently set the plant and all its’ travelers back on the ground.

I asked Jeremy why they didn’t use spurge beetles on every stand of spurge.

"The beetles don’t seem to take in certain areas…where there is a lot of water, areas with many trees and sometimes they just don’t take for seemingly no reason," he replied.

We jumped back into his truck and made our way to another GPA. We were in the middle of a conversation about what types of spray go on what types of weeds during what time of year, when his phone rang.

"You got them out? Good…well I think that is going on today still. You can go and give it a shot. It is pretty windy, but you might catch some…OK let me know," Cramer hung up the phone.

"That was Loren. He got the crew unstuck and is now on his way to spurge beetle roundup in Spink County. They go to fields where they know beetles have been planted. Then they walk through the fields with nets and catch them. We then spread these beetles out to other GPAs or give them to local landowners to want them for their own ground," he said.

I asked him if it was normal for his crew and him to have to shift gears so quickly.

"It is all part of creating areas that are healthy and lush," Cramer told me. "There are so many aspects, from weeds, to native grasses, to trees…even easy access to these public grounds. Those are all aspects we have to cover." "Take this piece of land," he said as we pulled into a small parking lot adjoining a beautiful GPA. "For years, we have been preaching trees, trees, trees to enhance our ground, but I am a big believer in native grasses. This area has a nice stand of trees in it, but look at the native grasses that we are planting here. Look how thick and great this looks. If you combine those things, you get an even healthier piece of ground."

As we covered a better part of Brown County via gravel roads, Jeremy and I looked at a myriad of places for the public to hunt, hike and enjoy. Some of the places had been grazed, and he shared the idea of grazing and burning to keep habitat healthy. Some of it was full of new water, running as fast as any permanent crick or river. Jeremy explained the effects of standing and running water different grasses. Jeremy pointed out differences on each piece we visited, some subtle, some obvious in each piece. It hit me around noon, I didn’t think anyone could be so serious about grass, weeds, and providing as good of habitat as possible for the public.

"I take it to heart when I hear someone we (Game, Fish and Parks) aren’t doing anything to control weeds or maintain these GPAs. This is my passion. I consider this my land. This is my kids’ future. This is where they will hunt. I want to leave something for them, and I want it to be as healthy as possible," he said.

As I drove back to Pierre, the wind still howling, I looked at the countryside a little differently. I, like many people focus so much on the critters. The pheasants, ducks, geese, deer, but the common denominator is healthy ground. With people like Jeremy Cramer around, patrolling for those nasty weeds, I think our critters, and the future of their habitat is in pretty good hands.

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